Directory

Director Patricia La Noue has been with INDS since 1987 when she was hired as Assistant Director and Academic Advisor. Soon after Patricia's arrival, she engaged several faculty interested in helping students design majors in environmental science and environmental policy. These concentrations flourished and have become part of the Geography and Environmental Science major here at UMBC. Realizing the talent of UMBC faculty and the abundant opportunities in the Baltimore-Washington area for career preparation in the international field, Director La Noue initiated the International and Global Studies concentration in the early 2000's. In addition, she has been active in the design and protection of the Herbert Run Greenway at UMBC and serves on several committees involved with campus sustainability initiatives. Additionally, she serve as a board member of the Center for Art, Design, and Visual Culture. She is married to Dr. George La Noue, and they have two sons, Jeff and Revere. She enjoys hiking, kayaking, yoga, and gigong.

Assistant
Director Steven McAlpine joined the INDS team in June of 2006 as
a Program Advisor and Instructor for the Capstone Seminar (INDS 480). Before coming to UMBC, Steven worked as a
researcher and seminar facilitator for the Interdisciplinary Studies Project at
Harvard Project Zero. While at Harvard,
Steven designed a Teachers Guide for Walden Media’s IMAX film “PULSE: a STOMP
Odyssey” and worked as an education consultant for the Boston Arts Academy. He is a professional studio musician and
composer who has taught as an adjunct music faculty member of the Hotchkiss
School in Connecticut. Steven earned his
B.S. from Dartmouth College and his Ed. M. from the Harvard Graduate School of
Education. He and his wife Martha live
with their son, Maddox, and daughter, Lily, in Catonsville, MD. A former college lacrosse player, Steven
enjoys mountain biking in Patapsco State Park, cross country skiing, and
playing “Thomas the Train” with Maddox and Lily.

Assistant
Director Carrie Sauter joined Interdisciplinary Studies as a
Program Advisor in 2007. She received
her B.S. in Psychology from UMBC and her M.S. in Counseling Psychology from
Loyola College in Maryland. Not only is
she an alumna from UMBC, she worked for 2 years in the Registrar’s Office
advising transfer students and graduation candidates. Prior to working for UMBC, she performed
psychological assessments for Maryland’s Department of Public Safety and
Correctional Services. Carrie enjoys running
in ultra-marathons, experimenting with new foods and recipes, and tending a
variety of gardens at home with her husband, Craig.

Samirah
Hassan joined INDS as our part time office assistant in Fall
2011, and was hired full time in January of 2012. She is a 2010 graduate of UMBC with a
Bachelors of Science in Psychology and a Minor in Biology.

Jill joined INDS in 2012 as an Adjunct Instructor. She
teaches INDS 430, Food: An
Interdisciplinary Exploration. In Fall 2012 she also became a Program
Advisor and General Associate. Jill
worked for 17 years as a union and workers' rights attorney before getting
involved in urban and school food system reform. She has consulted with Baltimore City Schools,
a charter school consortium and individual charter schools about farm to
cafeteria reform and food and garden educational programs and is a member of
the Baltimore Food Policy Advisory Council. She participated in the creation of
Great Kids Farm, a working educational farm owned by Baltimore City Schools and
Good to Grow, a community food growing project in Ethiopia.

Jill received a J.D. and an M.A. (Political Science) from
Columbia University. When not at UMBC,
you may find her in a garden, playing the hammered dulcimer, writing poetry,
swimming, tending to her college age boys (Mulugeta and Anteneh) or daughter
Christina, or pruning fruit trees in her Irvington community's Peace Park
alongside her husband Michael Sarbanes and neighborhood children.

Eric Brown

GENERAL ASSOCIATE, INTERDISCIPLINARY STUDIES

Location: Fine Arts Building, Room 544

Phone: 410-455-2037Email: ebrown@umbc.edu

Eric Brown has had a long association with INDS, graduating from the program in 1993 with a proposal concentrating in Chemistry and History and serving as a program advisor from 2002 to 2006. He is also affiliated with the History Department at UMBC, having taught for the department as an adjunct faculty member for more than a decade. Among the courses he teaches are History of the American West, Darwinism, Human Context of Science & Technology and History of Science since 1700.

Dr. Montgomery has been an adjunct faculty member of INDS since 2012. He earned his Ph.D. in Physics from the University of Maryland College Park in 2009, and his B.S. in Physics and Interdisciplinary Studies: Optical Engineering from UMBC in 2005. While a UMBC student he sat on the Interdisciplinary Studies Committee to approve INDS degree proposals, and was also a candidate for valedictorian. His full time career today is as lead experimentalist for the Laboratory for Photocathode Research at the University of Maryland, College Park, where he designs, fabricates, and tests novel photoelectric sources for particle accelerators and free electron lasers. Dr. Montgomery has published over 20 peer reviewed papers and proceedings. He has been devoted to student mentoring, guiding 2 Ph.D. students, 8 undergraduates, and 4 high school students at UMD from 2007-2012. His undergraduate research mentees have been 5 times more likely than their peers to win the summer research competition at his institute, capturing the top prize of a conference fellowship in 3 of 6 years. Dr. Montgomery also consults for several small businesses and has a patent pending on controlled porosity reservoir photocathodes. When not at work, he can be found leading the young adults group at his church, digging up family history, juggling five objects simultaneously, or building a giant catapult in his backyard.